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Update: Rajul Jain, a co-founder & Head of Operations has also resigned.
Earlier: Online fashion retailer Yebhi whose board members Raul Rai and Suvir Sujan had quit in November last year, now has a new casualty. NextBigWhat has learned that co-founder Nitin Agarwal, the company’s third director who holds over 20% of the company’s shares has also resigned. Agarwal has resigned from the company’s board with effect from 25th January 2014.
This leaves only co-founder and CEO, Manmohan Agarwal at the helm. The exit of Sujan from the company means that Nexus has written off its investment in the company. Sources tell us that Catamaran has also followed suit but we couldn’t confirm it with Catamaran.
Yebhi has a gross merchandise value in excess of Rs 200 cr and is looking to break-even and attain profitability, Agarwal said in an interview. Yebhi, however, has the Irctc deal going for it. The company won the much contested deal to run the shopping site for the online ticketing site of Indian railways last year. Edited Excerpts.
How has your growth been in 2013-14?
In 2013-14, we haven’t really been pushing growth. We’ve been growing organically by 30-40%, but that’s all.
What kind of traction have you achieved so far? Profits?
I can’t really give you any numbers right now.
Yebhi-IRCTC, how is the tie up going? What kind of turnover are you getting from it?
The tie-up is doing well. We have been getting 300-400k visits to the shopping site daily. And we’re getting a good turnover, can’t share numbers right now.
What is your GMV right now?
Our GMV is in excess of Rs 200 crores.
What are Yebhi’s plans in 2014?
We want to consolidate and grow and attain profitability.
There are rumours of Yebhi shutting or scaling down, is this true?
There will be no shutdown. I don’t know where these rumours are coming from. And, I wouldn’t call it scaling down, I would call it consolidating. We’re looking to break-even and attain profitability.
What do you mean by consolidation?
In terms of consolidation we have reduced several costs, optimised marketing spends, have gone slow on discounting and are trying to optimise on margins the same way in the coming year.
So you are not going to shut down?
No, not at all.
What about Nitin Agarwal’s exit?
He left for personal reasons. He wants to start a new venture. We had formal discussions only about 2-3 weeks back.
Catamaran and Nexus have written off investments? How will you raise further rounds? What is your plan?
The investors have not communicated anything to me formally. We don’t need any further investments. While all the other companies are busy burning capital for top line growth, we just want to create profitability first and break-even. We are not planning on raising further rounds of investment.
Social networking giant Facebook & search giant Google are set to battle it out in India’s Rs 2,260 cr digital advertising market. As Indian internet users start spending more and more time on Facebook, brands, especially e-commerce companies, have begun splitting their marketing budgets between the two.
Traditionally, Google used to dominate the online advertising space in India with its search-based advertising. However, Facebook seems to be gearing up to counter Google’s ad dominance having recently announced changes to its advertising tools (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
With over 90 million users in India, Facebook is already a force to reckon with and advertisers have begun to take note of the opportunity that the platform offers.
The Numbers in India So Far
For instance, a mobile recharge company that currently splits it marketing budget in favor of the search giant, soon plans to split on a 60-40 basis between Facebook and Google. The company feels that Facebook is better for giving offers and at re-targeting or re-marketing – an area in which Google traditionally leads.
A re-marketing strategy involves targeting ads towards people who have previously visited an e-commerce portal, regardless of which page they navigate to. Facebook’s trove of varied user information from basics like age, gender, to more targeted information like relationship status, page likes and interest – all crucial to targeting the right potential client.
Tools Advertisers Use
Apart from the re-marketing strategy, there is also a lot going on in terms of the kind of channel that an advertiser chooses to pick. In a digital advertising market that is set to reach Rs 2,398 crore by March 2014, a majority of advertisers have chosen search engine marketing, or bidding on AdWords as the highest spend in the search ad budget. About 85% or Rs 723 crores is allocated for SEM. Google leads there.
However, the percentage spend on search ads witnessed a 3% drop from the 41% in FY12. Some reports suggest that this drop is due to the increase in spend on Social Media.
Split in Online Advertising
For Google, e-commerce companies are the biggest clients in India. Automobile and brick and mortar companies who don’t have active online sale are also big advertisers on Google. The preferred ad formats on Google that garner the company most revenue are the banner ads that appear on Youtube’s homepage and through remarketing say sources.
E-commerce portals that form a major chunk of Google’s ad revenues include (in order of share of revenue contribution) Flipkart, Myntra, Fabfurnish and Jabong says a source who did not wish to be named. These portals also advertise on Facebook, but at a much smaller scale. Google did not respond to questions we sent.
“Google is more intent driven, where you have to bid for the right keywords for ads. While Facebook is more about brand-building and ‘awareness’ marketing and not about immediate conversions, but long-term conversions. The conversion trend tends to be slightly better in Google,” says Vaibhav Aggarwal, co-founder & MD, Fabfurnish.
Though he refused to comment on the exact split made by Fabfurnish, he believes in a balancing act. “As long as our RoI is maintained, we feel both are important and a fine-balance needs to be maintained,” he added. Choosing the right channel to advertise on depends on the objectives and economics that an e-commerce company wants to attain they say.
E-commerce firms Shopclues, which has smaller advertising budgets compared to others like Myntra, spends about 20% on search engine marketing, 15% of social media and 40% on in-house customer acquisition programs.
Strong ad sales boosted Facebook’s Q3 ad revenues by 66% over the previous year to $1.80 billion in the quarter. It has also slowly, but quietly unveiled a slew of measures to boost ad revenues like releasing a “tracking pixel” to allow advertisers to go to their websites using Facebook ads, specifying objectives and even choosing where their ads appear among other.
It is on this that Bangalore based e-commerce company Urban Ladder puts its faith.
“We believe in the power of social referrals. In addition, our belief is that communication of product quality, through strong visuals is more important, than having deals driven marketing. Facebook works much better for a highly visual brand relying on the power of a virtuous cycle,” says Ashish Goel, founder & CEO, Urban Ladder.
Like Aggarwal, he too feels that the choice of channel is to be subject and category specific. “If there is a category which has high search volumes, and a customer does comparison before purchase Google would probably work better. On the other hand, for a business that by its nature has virality at its core, FB should be the channel of choice,” he explains
In addition to its recent changes, Facebook is now also betting on the automotive space – currently the second largest contributor to Google’s ad revenue.
A comScore report has found that not only does Facebook help more automotive brands that are advertised, but it also significantly reduces competition. Automotive ads placed on Facebook were found to have 70% reach among in-market households.
What Ad Men Say
E-commerce companies like Myntra, Jabong and Yebhi spend Rs 10-15 lakhs on Facebook impact properties like logout banners say ad gurus, with at least 3 insertions a month.
In fact, social networking sites like Facebook, have already cornered a large portion of the money spent by brands on display advertising. According to comScore, at 39%, social networking sites in India served the maximum ad impressions, while the rest went to portals and web services.
“E-commerce brands spend on normal ads and also on retargeting on Facebook. The maximum impression in India (from September 2013 data) was also served on Facebook,” says an advertising professional.
Not a Threat Yet
However Google does not really see that as a threat, if what persons who are familiar with the matter are to go by.
“No advertiser would leave Google for Facebook. Google is much more than a social networking site. They have search, shopping, videos etc. Especially with Youtube, advertisers would get much more than what they invest in Facebook,” says the source.
For all the talk of Facebook being just a networking website, is Google feeling the heat? The search giant has recently launched the beta of Google +Post ads, a social ad format that depends on the search giant’s networking arm – Google+. The +Post ads run on Google’s Display Network which constitutes over 2 million websites and allows customers to comment and have conversations with the brands. Google+ currently has an estimated 30 million users in India.
While working in the core personalization team at Amazon, Saurabh Nangia realised that most online businesses and small businesses lacked user personalization and targeting.
Though the companies were spending much time & resources on acquiring customers online, many of them were unable to retain customers, improve customer loyalty and increase conversion rates.
This thought got Saurabh thinking and Targeting Mantra was developed as a solution for it. The SaaS based service offers analytics to websites based on customer profiling that provides additional insights to businesses and in turn help them offer better product recommendation to customers.
Currently the service offer 15 solutions for personalization such as similar items widget, people who bought also bought, frequently bought together, recommendation emails, banner ads, etc. Customers can also track their performance through the provided analytics dashboard.
The product was launched in Aug 2013, and has managed to get 6 e-commerce companies as customers till date. These customers include ShopClues.com, Yebhi.com, YepMe.com and Juvalia. More companies are in the trial phase and are expected to become customers soon.
“All of these companies have seen an average of 10% increase in the conversion rate and ~20% of site-wide purchases coming through us,” says Saurabh.
The company also plans to take the product international in first quarter of 2014.
By offering personalization, targeting and analytics as a single package, the startup wants to help companies reduce time and cost.
The cost to implement the service depends on feature requirements, traffic on the website, catalogue size and revenues. The company estimates the average to be around $1000/month for smaller firms, $4000/month for medium sized firms and 10,000/month for large clients in the Asian and American Markets. The company provides a 30 day trial period for their customers, and they are charged only once a significant gain through the service is seen.
The bootstrapped startup says that they are currently cash-flow positive, with an expected annual revenue of $300,000, an amount they expect to increase over the course of the year.
In the future iterations of the product, the team will add provisions to take a customer’s social behaviour in account to curate recommendations. The dashboards will also be updated to offer price-analytics and demand forecasting.
The recently held Google Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) saw almost all of the top ecommerce companies in the country trying to offer their best deal to the customers. The entire social media and Internet was clogged with a barrage of offers and discounts from these portals.
Getting attention in the real world is so difficult, let alone the digital world with all the fast changing social activity and noise. Standing out and getting noticed requires some good ideas and online stunts to be performed.
Inspite of all the noise around the GOSF 2013 festival, some ecommerce portals managed to get their message out, cutting through the rest of the noise. Here is a look at a couple of them.
Shine.com & Superstar Rajinikanth
Shine.com, the job portal owned by The Hindustan Times, had one such interesting online stunt up their sleeves and it did manage to garner some attention during the recently concluded GOSF 2013.
Shine.com helps users by getting their resumes get better exposure through social and employee referrals. The service also has a resume writing service, where users can get resumes made through professional resume creators.
The company earlier created a profile for Superstar Rajinikanth on LinkedIn and then ran a Twitter contest based on it from 12th December, the second day of GOSF, which was also Rajinikanth’s birthday. The contest ran along with a discount on their resume writing service.
Within hours their Twitter contest, with the hashtag #RajinikanthCV, was trending on the social networking site.
The hashtag immediately started trending ensuring a positive trend for Google India and the festival across the social networking site.
This marketing stunt helped Google India drown all the negative comments being shared regarding GOSF and all it took them was nearly or less than Rs 2,40,000 (approx. cost of 24 Nexus 7) to get trending on Twitter and keep the netizens engaged.
GOSF 2012 vs 2013
Unlike last year’s GOSF, which ran only for 24 Hrs, this year’s edition saw the festival happen over a 72 Hr (11th-13th Dec) period with over 200 participating portals, which was later extended for another 24 Hrs due to a technical glitch that lost shoppers a good part of the first few hours of the festival on the first day itself.
Here are what some the activity the online portals saw during the period.
Online fashion store Myntra also saw a similar trend this year during the festival. The portal sold a record 1 lakh products on a single day and saw over 3.5X increase in its revenues during the first 24 hour period.
Indiatimes Shopping also saw a 1.5X increase in business during the festival as compared to last year’s GOSF. The portal said that 60% of the customers it saw shopping on the website during GOSF were new customers.
Online coupon site CouponDunia saw more than 2,94,000 visitors during this year’s GOSF as compared to nearly 84,000 visitors who visited the site during GOSF 2012 edition.
Some Sales Data From GOSF 2013
Ecommerce portal Myntra sold 1 lakh products from their fashion category on the first 24 Hrs of the festival itself.
Homeshop18 saw a 4X increase in sales during the festival as compared to sales on other normal days.
Amazon India saw a 5X increase in overall sales volume across categories.
Online shopping portal Infibeam said that their website saw 80% jump in traffic and nearly 60% jump in actual transaction during the first 10 hours of the festival.
Ecommerce site Yebhi also witnessed 50% increase in traffic during GOSF 2013 as compared to sales on normal days.
Google India is back with its online shopping festival. Unlike last year when the shopping festival was held for just a day, this year the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) will be spread over 3 days from the December 11-13.
The search giant has been promoting e-commerce in India ever since it launched the festival in an attempt to tap into the burgeoning online shopping space in India. According to a report compiled by Google and TNS Australia there was 128% increase in interest in online shopping among customers in 2012.
Last year, the festival claimed to show great deals from leading e-commerce players like Flipkart, Jabong, Babyoye! and Myntra among others. This year too, Google has promised “countless discounts from cars to cashmere and laptops to luggage.”
According to Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director – Google India, partners who were part of the festival last year, saw massive increase in online traffic and some of them had already sold out their stocks by 3 pm. e-Commerce sites like Myntra.com had reported a 75% increase in traffic and 120% increase in sales, while others like India Times, Pepperfry and Snapdeal saw a 40-50% increase in traffic.
Unlike the e-retailers who lauded the GOSF 2012, customers themselves were disappointed by the attempt. Reviews of the GOSF 2012 on twitter called it a “scam”, with “lots of hype” but “no substance” after products shown on the site contained marginal discounts to the actual price. It will be interesting to see how Google has fixed the issues in its 2013 edition of GOSF. Those taking part include Jet Airways, Yebhi, eBay, Dish TV and many more.
Which means they don’t own inventory, don’t store it, and don’t deliver it themselves, at least not like they used to when they were direct sellers themselves. And that means less consistent user experiences in terms of product quality, deliveries and returns.
The effect is already very visible on social media and online fora where one’s started hearing of many more less than happy voices about even those such as Flipkart, which had an unblemished history of perfect service and delivery. Perhaps Flipkart has suffered the most in terms of image owing to the very high standards it set in its inventory model avatar and the very high expectations that have come to be part of the consumer’s mental image of the brand.
To be fair, most of these marketplaces make a fairly serious effort to offer, for any product, multiple seller options to the user, with ratings and scores, stock availability and estimated dispatch and delivery times. However, one hears of cancelled orders, changed prices and delivery delays every now and then, and even the odd instance of the wrong – or in extreme cases, no – product delivered inside the packaging!
Almost inevitably, the marketplace bears the brunt of the consumer’s ire. After all, it is their brand and often inducement that draws a buyer in and ensures a purchase happens.
So given this new reality of the marketplace, what else can the e-commerce players do so that they both continue to be seen as preferred destinations, yet do not bear the complete burden of their vendors’ actions?
Be a Mall. Not a Store
Malls are marketplaces!
They manage infrastructure and common services, manage the variety of choices for consumers at the level of the brands and types of stores, attract and track footfalls, enable vouchers and coupons, even participate in revenue in some cases. But the retailers run their own show, manage their own inventory, customer experience, display, etc.
An online marketplace is essentially the same.
They need to focus on getting folks on to the site, ensure a wide variety of attractive charge real estate and providing common services and infrastructure that help selling. Essentially – be a very valuable pipe and support system to sellers. Provide analytics.
Drive shopping festivals. But let the selling be led and driven by the retailers – very visibly. Right now the landing pages make the brand seem responsible for the selection and display of the products without any reference to the actual “store”. This obviously buttresses the image that the site/brand is responsible, and not just a conduit.
There might be more than one design solution that fixes it – and it’ll surely help set the expectation right upfront.
Offer Convenience. Variety. Safeguards. Transparency. Conflict Resolution. Not Price
As part of the baggage from their earlier avatars, and owing to the unsustainable price wars as e-commerce sites proliferated, “deals” have become the primary selling point and customer acquisition mechanism online.
But marketplaces need to worry about more than that! They’re not segmented enough – how site-1 differs from site-2 in terms of it’s positioning is not very clear. In the real world, some marketplaces are about value, some about a wide variety, yet others about premium offerings and some offer a good relaxed time with shopping as a by-product. Indeed, window shopping is a major activity, and a very key part of a shopper’s pre-purchase behaviour. By and large, these nuances do not exist in the online world.
Online marketplaces can build their brands around convenience – pick a particular set of user needs, personalize experiences and offer browsability options that let the user peek into various stores and options. Provide tools to stores to keep the consumer engaged over visits. Ensure transparency of vendor quality, reliability and reputation both for the products as well as for logistics very visibly and obviously. And manage disputes and conflicts as those arise. Collect feedback about various stores in terms of product quality and shopping experiences, and act on the feedback very visibly.
These might help consumers see the marketplace as a curator and enabler of good stores and services rather than a peddler of goods themselves.
Messaging. Marketing. Be Seen To Be On the Consumers’ Side!!
Snapdeal and Flipkart have been spending a fair bit of cash on advertising. Most of the messaging do nothing to change the belief in consumers that these sites sell directly to users rather than manage a bunch of sellers.
A lot more clear messaging about the marketplaceness of the sites will go a long way in helping dispel this notion. And if you’re essentially the infrastructure guys that help users pick a good product from the vendor who can provide the most reliable buying experience and also pick as an appropriate, dependable logistics option, you’re already seen to be batting for the consumer.
It’s not an easy change to alter one’s design and operational DNA, and even more challenging to ensure consistent quality and reliability from a large, assorted set of vendors. But over time, these e-commerce players will hopefully learn to improve not only theirs, but vendor-end processes much better and fix a lot of these growth pains.
What they right away do need is to understand very clearly is their role as a marketplace.
It appears that railway ticketing site IRCTC has revamped its journey planner to sport a different look and user experience. While it sounds fancy, this is not the complete overhaul which the government has promised.
The new look, being rolled out slowly to its 4 cr odd registered users, can throw some of the seasoned users off with the design. The key difference in the new IRCTC Journey Planner is in the second screen which appears after you key in your journey details and click “Find Trains.”
IRCTC is India’s largest online ticketing website. Earlier this month, a record number of 5.72 lakh tickets were booked online on the site. On an average, the site books nearly 4 lakh tickets. While presenting the railway budget this year, the Railway Minister had said that the department will overhaul the site to support 6x more users and 3x more tickets per minute.
The new screen looks something like this.
The confusing part is the tiny “Book Now” button which appears in the next screen. It is easy to miss. We booked a Tatkal ticket this morning and the site appears to be slightly faster, but that could be just us.
Recently, the ticketing arm of Indian railways launched its e-commerce site in partnership with Yebhi.com last month. IRCTC’s online shopping site powered by Yebhi is live at shop.irctc.co.in and sells clothing, accessories, home decor and electronics.
As foreign online retailers like Amazon and eBay knock on the Indian government’s door to gain complete access to its $450 bn retail industry, a few domestic retailers are also working to pave way for the entry of foreign capital into the sector.
Homegrown online retailers such as Yebhi, Myntra and a few others have come out in support of foreign direct investment in online retail, which is currently banned in India.
“The way things are working, there is a possibility that we might see some major changes in a month or two,” Manmohan Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Yebhi.com told NextBigWhat. Agarwal is trying to persuade the government to allow FDI in e-commerce. ”It will open new scope for our retailers and will let the market mature,” says Agarwal.
According to recent reports, the Indian government is considering a move to allow FDI in online retail ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with US President Barack Obama later this month.
India allows 100% FDI in cash and carry, online marketplaces and single brand retail. Up to 51% foreign investment is allowed in multibrand physical retail. But when it comes to multi brand retailing in ecommerce and inventory led model, its completely prohibited.
Mukesh Bansal, CEO & Co-founder, Myntra told NextBigWhat, “We want the government to treat e-commerce companies as IT / ITES companies and base policies accordingly.” E-commerce companies and various industry bodies have been talking to the government on the benefits of FDI in the sector.
While people like Manmohan are leading the initiative of FDI in ecommerce and online retail with lot of small and big players supporting him, homegrown online retailers such as Flipkart, Jabong and Snapdeal aren’t too vocal about it. E-mails sent to them went unanswered.
“Players such as Amazon and Ebay will bring best practices which are very much required in taking online retailing in India to a next level,” added Bansal.
Pradeep Katyal, CEO, Utsav Fashion is also in favor of FDI in online retail. “Going multibrand and supporting more artisans, small entrepreneurs and vendors will generate more foreign exchange money, which is anyway going to help the country,” said Katyal.
Utsav Fashion is one of the largest aggregator and curator of Indian ethnic wear. It went online in 2003 and sells under its own private label. The company earned Rs 90 cr of forex last year as 90% of its sales come from overseas. “We all know that 10 years down the line, there will be FDI, no matter what. So why not allow it now?,” he asks.
For homegrown companies that have achieved certain scale, the coming of Amazon and deep pocketed e-commerce ventures might pose a threat.
Opposition party BJP, is also giving positive vibes to the industry over the FDI issue, said Agarwal.
Recently, Medianama reported that Arvind Gupta, the National Head of BJP’s IT Cell, has indicated strong support on allowing FDI in e-commerce.
He said, “More and more businesses want to operate out of India. FDI in e-commerce is a huge issue because companies are dying here.” According to our estimates, over a 100 e-commerce companies have shut shop in the last 18 months.
How do Flipkart & Others Operate?
Some of India’s largest etailers are using a dual company structure to comply with the laws. For instance, Flipkart has incorporated a new parent company in Singapore which owns the back end and wholesale B2B operations while its has sold its front end WS Retail to a group of investors led by former OnMobile Chief Operating Officer Rajiv Kuchhal.
Rocket Internet backed Jabong has a similar structure. It runs a B2B entity by the name of Jade eServices and a B2C entity by the name of Xerion.
Snapdeal is not an exception either. It runs its wholesale operations by the name of Jasper Infotech, a marketing firm, while its customer facing business is called Spinel Tradecom.
In short, major Indian online retailers have created a complex back end and front end structure which follows all FDI norms, but the reality behind the scenes is opaque.
The Internet has arrived and everyone seems to be taking to it, including the Indian Railways. The Indian Railways has moved over its existing system to a 100% e-auction based model for disposal of scrap.
Bidders won’t be needing physical presence or physical bidding process any more for the auction. The department hopes that this move will improve transparency and benefit the bidder.
Indian Railways disposes nearly Rs 3500 crore worth of scrap every year and until recently the disposal process involved public auctions requiring physical presence of the purchaser for the bidding.
The e-auction system, developed in-house by the Ministry of Railways, carries out the auctions over the Internet using digital certificate(DSC) for improved security of the process.
Interested purchasers can participate in the e-auction by registering themselves at the Indian Railways E-Procurement System portal. Purchasers can make electronic payments through the portal for the bidding process. This also ensures that no cash is handled by the purchaser or the Railway’s cashier.
We reported on the crisis at redBus after its acquisition. The company has lost at least a dozen senior employees & more are on their way out, apparently because they were unhappy with the ESOP scheme.
Some of our guest authors wrote deep thought pieces provoking reactions from a large number of readers. The analysis of Groupon’s Rs 9 for a Kilo of Onion campaign was a roaring hit. In short, a lot of water has flown under the bridge. In case you missed a few, here’s a recap of the best of the week.
The ticketing arm of Indian railways, IRCTC recently partnered with online retailer Yebhi, to diversify its revenue sources. Yebhi’s white labeled solution now runs a shopping portal for the railway ticketing site which clocks the highest number of online transactions in India. This partnership will reap benefits for Yebhi. As the online retailer’s CEO Manmohan Agarwal points out in this interview, 25% of the traffic from IRCTC is already going to the shopping site. Also Yebhi has access to the details of the users who transact once on the online retail portal. That’s a fairly large user base. Associating with a trusted government subsidiary, will further enhance trust factor in the mind of users which may remain even when the contract between the two ends. Clever play that one!
In this interview, Manmohan Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO,Yebhi to goes into the details of the deal. Edited Excerpts.
Has Yebhi done any white label solutions before?
Yes, we have partnered with Citibank and Axis bank for over a year now. Cash backs, coupons, reward points, EMI options etc features can be availed on Yebhi.com as part of the partnership.
What was the thought behind collaborating with IRCTC?
Undoubtedly, IRCTC is one of the largest e commerce players with over 2 crore registered users and approx. 4 lakh transactions daily. These users transact using debit and credit cards (No COD) and hence are accustomed to online buying. With such a niche set of users it makes all the sense to do online retailing and so the partnership.
But, will it conflict with Yebhi’s interests from a brand perspective?
I don’t think so. For any industry to survive it is very important that there is competition. Also the large market size means more players can have their share with no one coming in the way of others. I am very optimistic and always think constructively when it comes to growing the market.
As a white labeled solutions provider, what aspects do you manage?
We take care of the process end to end. Product sourcing, logistics, technology, inventory, marketing and other tasks of the venture are managed by us. IRCTC is helping in the promotion of their shopping portal at their end.
How you plan to promote the new online shopping destination to users?
That’s the best part. We do not have to do much to acquire customers. We are promoting it through online ads, social media and general marketing techniques. But the differentiation is these users, as I mentioned earlier, are already comfortable in transacting online and already trust IRCTC brand. IRCTC is already promoting at their ticketing portal, and once they start sending mailers and targeted advertising to their database it will be an easy job to pull these users and hence the customer acquisition cost will be very low as compared to other portals.
What has been the traction so far since the launch?
It has been a very less time since we went live, I cannot share the actual numbers as its too early to speculate anything. But almost 25% of the IRCTC traffic (irctc.co.in) is coming to the IRCTC’s shopping website, which is pretty good. We are happy so far with the progress.
How many brands and products does IRCTC’s E-commerce portal feature?
Currently, it has over 60,000 products and more than 600 brands. Also we plan to launch more categories which we may not do on Yebhi.
How does the revenue share model work?
It completely varies from category to category. It ranges from 1% at the minimum and goes up to 10%.
Do you have access to irctc.co.in, database, the 2 crore registered users?
No we do not have access to the main database. But once a customer transacts on the shopping portal his details are shared with us.
There is a separate login for the ecommerce portal even for the users who are members of Yebhi or IRCTC or both, why?
There were lot of complications at the back end, so we decided to keep it separate. If we had waited to resolve, it would have taken months to launch it. Though we are working on it and in future we may integrate it.
How you see this ecommerce venture shaping up in future?
As per my speculations in coming 1-2 years it will be one of the largest online shopping properties in India. We do not have to go here and there, if we just focus on the current registered user base of the online ticketing portal, the job will be much easier.
How is Yebhi.com doing? How many transactions are you clocking on a daily basis?
We are doing approx 7,000 transactions a day with an average ticket size of 1,600-1,800. We hope to be profitable in coming 1-2 years and are happy with our current speed.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched an app for Windows 8 today.
The app developed along with Microsoft, will provide users another channel to book tickets beyond the portal. IRCTC expects the number e-ticket bookings to increase with the introduction of this app.
You can download the app for you Windows 8 Phone from here. Yo will not be able to use the app between 8AM and 12PM to make bookings.
To use the app, you must first generate a TPIN by logging onto www.irctc.co.in. The TPIN will be generated for your registered phone number and the bookings should be made through the registered phone number.
IRCTC at an average is booking around 4 lakh tickets a day. But people have always faced connectivity issues and payment problems on the website.
How can a original founder share equity with a cofounder who joins at a later date (may or may not bring in capital) taking responsibility of managing one of the functions of the business ie Marketing/Sales. I believe ESOP is one way to reserve the share with a vesting period of 3 to 5 years. Are there any other methods which could safeguard the interests of both cofounders (original as well as new).
So My First Order at Yebhi turns out to be a complete disaster. It seems they have no intentions to ship my order. Anyone with Right Contacts in Yebhi who can help me resolve the issue??? The issue is with their own logistics dept ( Yebhi Express) if their Tracking is to be believed. ( I Now Doubt if they really have those products).
Obviously moved by the entry of Uber in Bangalore, Olacabs has announced that it will refund flight fares if a customer misses a flight. Olacabs says that it will give a refund of Rs 5,000 or the ticket fare, whichever is lower, if the cab reaches more than 10 minutes late. The refund will be done in the form of Ola Money.
Now inviting Indian innovators / entrepreneurs / startups, to participate in “The Next BIG Idea” contest. This initiative is backed by the Ontario International Marketing Centre (Government of Ontario, Canada), and run as a collaborative by the BSE Institute (a subsidiary of the Bombay Stock Exchange) and Ryerson University, Toronto.
The purpose of this thread is to convey a potential risk to KooKoo ( Ozonetel ) Team. There are in all 2 potential issues observed in KooKoo’s website ( at very first look ) – The one is related to the payment and the other is related to the user profile info.
The news about IRCTC launching an e-commerce site in partnership with Yebhi.com is hard to miss for anyone in India. Everything to do with IRCTC is big. With 2 crore registered users, they book more than 25 crore rail tickets per annum. In fact, they were the harbingers of internet penetration in India. Theirs was the first online transaction for scores of people in India. Naturally, there is a huge expectation about their “diversification” into selling goods online. But, I’ll wait to see how this plays out.
I don’t think the user base can be taken for granted as a headstart. The savvy online shoppers who already have accounts with Flipkart and scores of other e-commerce sites are not captive to IRCTC-Yebhi and will go hunting for better prices. However, the real asset of IRCTC in this regard is the set of users uninitiated to buying anything other than train tickets online. If they had built something with this segment in mind, they might be onto something big. But, in this case they have merely put Yebhi’s inventory in front of IRCTC’s user base.
While Yebhi.com certainly benefits from access to this market, IRCTC is reduced to an affiliate. I do expect IRCTC to retain the right to bring in another player at the end of their current contract though. The typical thinking for them will be that during the next tender cycle, some other e-commerce player might bid higher. But, such a one-time auction might be limiting for either party. So, what’d have been better? We’ll see that in a bit.
In the meantime, like what any smart startup would do, Yebhi is trying to move the shoppers from this microsite to their own site using Google retargeting. Making hay while the sun shines! 🙂 See the conversation below on Twitter:
@nextbigwhat Yebhi is using IRCTC’s analytics to target Yebhi’s ads to user. I searched for shoes on IRCTC, getting ads for shoes on Yebhi!!
Coming to the title of this post, why this too (yee bhi?), IRCTC? For a lot of us, IRCTC is synonymous with Indian Railways. In reality, it is a (relatively) small subsidiary of Indian Railways set up in 1999 “to upgrade, professionalize and manage the catering and hospitality services at stations, on trains and other locations and to promote domestic and international tourism through development of budget hotels, special tour packages, information & commercial publicity and global reservation systems.”
Essentially, they were the outsourcing hub of any non-core activity of Indian Railways. Gradually they performed well with online ticketing too, and they might have gone in for even a public issue of shares but for some change in thinking at the political level. The internal sibling rivalry between the arms of Indian Railways also added to its woes.
The first casualty was the attractive catering business. The IRCTC Chairman has said:
“During the year 2011-12, the Corporation achieved a total income of 554.11 Crore, as compared to 764.93 Crore in 2010-11. Gross profit of 76.54 crore was achieved during the year 2011-12 as compared to 129.79 crore in the previous year 2010-2011. The total income and profits have declined with transfer of Licensee Catering segment to Railways. Except Catering, all other business segments of the Corporation have shown considerable growth.”
The response from IRCTC was to use its catering capacity to serve corporates. That set them off on the path of reducing reliance on the Railways. I speculate that their online ticketing pie too is threatened from within. One indication was the abortive attempt by the back-end of Railways’ IT infrastructure, CRIS (Central Railway Information Systems), to run a user-facing booking website.
IRCTC’s proposed strategy is “[o]f harnessing its extensive capability in the fields of hospitality, tourism, E-commerce and packaged drinking water and is gearing up to excel in its diversified role. As for future, the Corporation is poised to capture new opportunities in Railway and Non Railway Segment to sustain its high level of performance and at the same time shall continue to lay added emphasis on developing existing business lines.”
I agree with the drift they are taking. However, I would’ve preferred them take a pivotal meta role in the ecosystem. Something like becoming the de facto digital wallet of India. Given that 29% of ticket booking transactions fail at payment stage, bulk of their users would opt for their digital wallet. With their massive reach and the highest frequency of use compared to other e-commerce players, their digital wallet will be viable and can be floated as an option for all e-commerce sites.
Like I said elsewhere they might make digital wallets the new normal just like they made buying online normal in India. Another direction that they could have taken is to become a marketplace for all e-commerce players. That way, they don’t have to rely on one player. They still can take this direction after the current contract with Yebhi ends, but they will need to commit to this strategy and build this marketplace themselves. If they did, they would have moved away from the model of tenders fraught with delays and red tape to a new era of platforms. Will that happen?
[About the author: BalaSundaraRaman (Sundar) is a co-founder of Ideophone, a solution provider for travellers and commuters. Besides being a rail fan, he has worked with various arms of Indian Railways from the divisional level up to the Railway Board in his efforts to launch a novel wakeup call service called Pyka, based on Ideophone’s technology. Write to him on email@example.com or follow him @oligoglot on Twitter.]
The ticketing arm of Indian railways has launched its e-commerce site in partnership with Yebhi.com. IRCTC’s online shopping site powered by Yebhi is live at shop.irctc.co.in and is retailing clothing, accessories, home decor and electronics.
The online railway ticketing arm of Indian railways had floated a tender for the Rs 1000 cr project. E-commerce player Infibeam had also bid for the contract. In 2011, Infibeam partnered with Gujarat govt to enable their rural e-commerce initiative “Vishwagram Bazaar”.
This is easily a big deal in the Indian e-commerce space. Simply because IRCTC has nearly 2 crore registered users, twice that of India’s largest online retailer Flipkart. The railway ticketing site is also promoting the new shopping portal on its main website (see image).
Nearly 4 lakh tickets are booked on IRCTC which clocks over a million daily visits. We like how IRCTC is adding “additional revenue streams” to its business. But it should fix ticketing first. Wonder if the folks in the department have read: Famous IRCTC Jokes?
Besides the startups we profiled in detail earlier, here are some that caught our attention. Compare prices on Price-Hunt before your next online purchase. The next time you want to buy a smartphone cover, give DailyObjects a visit. Healthee.in will help you add more to your healthy lifestyle. Visit Greenkins the next time you want to buy clothes for kids.
Online shopping is slowly gaining momentum in India and with an increasing number of people preferring to shop online from the convenience of their home or office, the future of the e-commerce industry looks good for now. With the increase of online shoppers comes the increased need for a good price comparison platform, that will help the gauge the best price availability across various e-commerce portals.
Price comparison portal Price-Hunt revolves around the idea of being a one stop search for all online shopping needs. The site claims to display real time price search across various popular online stores in India. The portal gathers results from various online shopping portals and provides the best deal available to the customer who can then be redirected to the shopping portal with the offering.
Presently, the startup has products listed across online retailers like Amazon, Flipkart, IndiaTimes, Infibeam, Next, Homeshop18, Jabong, Myntra , Naaptol, Yebhi and Croma amongst others. It also has features like “Deal of the day” and “Offers & Coupons” to help users make their shopping experience easy and rewarding. Currently only online stores in India are covered, but in the future international online sellers are also being planned to be covered.
On most online stores available in India today, you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to buying a gadget, especially a smartphone. Getting an accessory for the same is a different story. You will mostly end up deciding between a few spurious or overpriced goods without any warranty.
DailyObjects is a portal focused on addressing this gap. It offers a selective but extensive range of genuine and reasonably priced accessories characterised by their design and quality. The portal enables you to discover and buy all available accessories for a gadget in one place. The service also offers information about the product’s compatibility and functions like build and features. DailyObjects tries to make their product available to people across India, and offers a range of accessories for iPhone5, iPad Mini, Samsung and HTC’s latest smartphones launched in India.
healthee.in is an ecommerce startup catering to the needs of health & fitness community and offers fitness equipment and accessories, sporting goods and nutrition supplements through their online portal. the portal is angel funded by friends and family and has been running as an ebitda profitable venture. The company is on a mission to make healthier lifestyle & better choices easier for everyone.
the portal also has an online magazine, that covers topics ranging from health and fitness to supplements. The service provides free shipping and delivers with 3-7 working once the order is confirmed. The service also accepts Cash-On-Delivery as a payment method and orders can also be placed via phone. If you are a health conscious person, give the portal a visit, you might find something that might interest you.
Greenkins offers a select range of safe and eco-friendly products for children.The featured products include baby clothing, accessories and gifts in 100% organic cotton, non toxic and natural art supplies, eco friendly toys, recycled gifts and much more. The company believes that being green is not about compromising on style quotient and so, the products are cool, contemporary and fun too.
The startup aims at being a credible and trusted resource for parents who are seeking to make responsible choices for their kids, by offering alternatives that are better for the kids and for the environment. They have partnered with Samhita Social Ventures, a leading CSR advisory, to launch a unique initiative called “making a difference” which encourages customer engagement. Customers can shop from a special range (m.a.d. specials) from which the portal will donate Rs 100 to one of the 3 causes that they may choose (empowerment of girl child, education of underprivileged children and tree plantation) or they may simply choose to make a donation of Rs 50 or Rs 100 to one of these causes or even do both (or neither).


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This is a pretty innovative idea, has anyone tried this new virtual shopping service offered by Home Plus yet?:
On the way home from work, busy commuters in South Korea are able to save time doing their supermarket shopping thanks to virtual stores at bus stops and subway stations where people can pick up juice, fruit, snacks and more from their smartphones.
Tesco Home plus launched its Korean internet shopping service in 2002, offering 35,000 items and served by 60 stores. According to the company, e-commerce accounts for 3% of Home plus business. Grocery shopping makes up 85% of all e-commerce transaction, while non-food products account for the remaining 15%.
Of South Korea’s 50 million people, more than 60% use smartphones. Tesco Home plus adjusted its online shopping platform and came up with an application that taps into the great potential of mobile phone users.
Tesco Home plus’ head of online businesses Sean Hur noted that mobile applications and online shopping share the same basis.
Once customers order the products, the store checks the order list, then packages the products and delivers on the same day, 10 times a day.
The company launched the mobile application in April last year and so far there are more than 1.4 million downloads, with 55,000 customer visits daily. It plans to have reached two million downloads by the end of this year. The top five most popular uses are for shopping, coupons, clubcards, leaflets and store information. [Bangkok Post]
You can read the rest at the link.

domain: news


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Pro-Build purchases Tennessee dealer
Pro-Build Holdings strengthened its presence in the Nashville, Tenn., market with the purchase of Crosslin Supply, a pro dealer with three lumberyards in central Tennessee. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Headquartered outside of Nashville in Smyrna, Crosslin also has locations in Franklin and Spring Hill, Tenn. Sales in 2005, the latest figures available, were $49.2 million. The company is affiliated with Lumbermens Merchandising Corp. (LMC).
Robertson & Foley acted as the financial advisor to Crosslin Supply in the transaction.
Eddie Crosslin and Greg Davis will remain in general management roles, responsible for the Smyrna and Franklin operations, respectively, according to Pro-Build. “The team at Crosslin Supply will be a great addition to our existing team in the Nashville area,” said Buddy Ables, president of Pro-Build’s East Region, in a prepared statement.
Pro-Build, owned by Fidelity Capital, has operations in Tennessee through the Strober Organization, which was purchased by Fidelity in 1997. Pro- Build is the nation’s largest pro dealer, with more than 500 locations in 40 states.
True Value owner inducted into Washington D.C. ‘Hall of Fame’
Howard Politzer, owner of Brookland True Value in Washington D.C., has received the Business Legacy Award from the Washington D.C. Hall of Fame Society, a group that recognizes members of the city’s business community.
The legacy award recognizes individuals and establishments that have contributed immensely to the growth and development of Washington, D.C. and changed the course of the District’s history. Hall of Fame Society executive board members voted unanimously to make Brookland True Value its first choice in the nbusinessi category, and Politzer was inducted into its Hall of Fame.
Politzer opened his first True Value in 1975 on Capitol Hill, and in 1981 he relocated the store six miles north to the city of Brookland.
Politzer has served as a member of the Brookland Chamber of Commerce, the Center for Community Development, the MayorIs Golden Washington Club, the Brookland Business and Professional Association and the Pennsylvania and Atlantic Seaboard Hardware Association.
Acquisition of Rinker nears completion
Rinker Materials, a top distributor of non-lumber building materials in the United States, with $4.5 billion in sales last year, will soon become part of Cemex, North America’s largest cement producer.
Cemex has purchased more than 90 percent of the shares of Rinker Group Ltd., Rinker’s Australian parent company, clearing the way for the cement supplier to acquire the rest of the company without consent.
Cemex, based in Monterrey, Mexico, placed an unsolicited $14 billion bid for all of Rinker’s shares earlier this year. In June it won majority control over Rinker’s board of directors and replaced them with its own appointees. The Rinker acquisition will further increase Cemex’s share of the U.S. concrete market.
Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., Rinker Materials sells cement, asphalt, pipe, tools, drywall, steel framing and other construction materials. It generates approximately 80 percent of its parent company’s revenues.


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Market capitalization of US-dollar fixed-price crypto-money Tether (USDT) for the first time has exceeded the $ 3 billion limit
According to the CoinMarketCap data, Tether now has a market capitalization of $ 3 billion 70 million ] The graph of Tether's market capitalization, source: CoinMarketCap
Recently, Tether's name came up frequently with discrediting claims. The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of New York accused Bitfinex of $ 850 million of customer funding shortage by using Tether's reserves. It was later revealed that Tether was not supported by the United States at 100%, but by 74%, as alleged.
However, the claims did not have a significant impact on Tether's price, even though the reputation was debilitating, and did not stop its growth. Fixed-price crypto money is still heavily used on crypto money exchanges. The most traded crypto currency in the last 24 hours after Bitcoin is USDT. Bitcoin's transaction volume is $ 22.8 billion, while USDT stands at $ 19.5 billion.
The USDT is used as an alternative to US Dollars when US dollars are not available.
Tether, launched in 2014, is a subsidiary of Bitfinex.


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Amazon has been both vocal and quiet about their relationship with China. Given the recent change in the US government, and policies yet to come, the question of how big of a role China plays in the Amazon business is very interesting.
We always wanted to research this topic, but given the way Amazon.com marketplace functions we’ve never been able to. The issue is that sellers on Amazon.com are not required to disclose their business information, nor is the seller name required to be related to their business name. We wrote more about this in the Verified Sellers opinion-piece. Because of the growth of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, which allows inventory to be stored in Amazon warehouses, it has become impossible to tell where the seller is located - even foreign sellers are using the FBA service.
But things are different in Europe. Sellers (and any other retailer) there are required to disclose their business information. So we combined seller information with their business details in all European Amazon marketplaces.
We found that 25 percent of sellers are based in China. This is based on combined average of the 5 European marketplaces (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), and counts active sellers only (at least one feedback rating a month).
In a study last year, Payoneer interviewed 900 Chinese sellers and found that 62 percent of respondents are selling on Amazon marketplaces. Of the 62 percent figure, 91 percent sell on Amazon.com in the US. Which means the 25 percent we calculated for European marketplaces is likely even larger in the US. The result is a speculation, since US and European marketplaces are not the same thing, and especially the US marketplace is much bigger. But given that Chinese sellers are interested in selling in the US the most, the ratio here should be the same or even higher that of Europe.
Out of those, more than 50 percent use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Which means that from the customer point of view it’s all the same experience. But for other sellers this should be a threatening figure because it will be hard to compete with them.
What’s also interesting is that the ratio of Chinese sellers using FBA compared to the total ratio of FBA users is much higher. Meaning that while only 35 percent of all sellers are using FBA, 50 precent of Chinese sellers are using it. For Chinese sellers FBA is the key feature allowing them to compete with domestic sellers.
The takeaway from this research is not the exact percentage of Chinese sellers. It’s the fact that there are more Chinese sellers than one might assume, they are very competitive because of FBA, and the percentage is no doubt growing.
This topic has been gaining wider interest too. In an article titled “Made in China — and straight to your Amazon box” USA Today wrote:
“Amazon’s helping. On Dec. 7 it held a summit for sellers in Hangzhou, China that attracted close to 1,500 attendees. The theme was shifting from a “Made in China” mentality to a “China quality” mentality, using a clever pun on the two phrases, both of which are pronounced zhidao.”
While many might not be aware of that, products can be imported to Amazon FBA straight from China. A container worth of goods can be sent directly to Amazon, avoiding many additional layers of extra hands. This produced faster import speeds, more competitive pricing, and once Chinese companies learned about it - huge growth of China imports.
Amazon is not outspoken about it in the US market, but clearly they see a big upside in connecting with Chinese companies. In Amazon Is an E-Commerce Infrastructure Company, Not a Retailer article we wrote:
“The Amazon marketplace as it stands right now is largely consisting of retailers. But the trend we have been noticing for a while, and the vision this Amazon event is showing, is the ultimate rise of manufacturers participating in it. Amazon has always been focused on cutting out middlemen - they don’t want to be one, nor they want them on the platform.”
In this vision of removal of middleman and direct-to-consumer, should Amazon source straight from the manufacturer in China? Time will tell.


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Hanuman Textile buys 23.89 lakh shares of Cosmo Films
Saturday, March 18, 2017, 9:05 AM
On March 17 Gayatri & Annapurna sold 23,89,000 shares of Cosmo Films at Rs.383.45 on BSE. However, Hanuman Textile Manufacturing & Investment Co bought 23,89,000 shares at Rs 383.45. On Friday, Cosmo Films ended at Rs.387.95, up Rs.8.60, or 2.27% on BSE. The share touched its 52-week high Rs 431 and 52-week low Rs 271.40 on 20 October, 2016 and 28 March, 2016, respectively.


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Al-Futtaim Watches & Jewellery, part of the Al-Futtaim group of companies, has recently added American brand Philip Stein to its portfolio of fine watches and jewellery.
Philip Stein’s unique products combine wellness, style and technology with high quality craftsmanship. The brand’s product category includes watches, day and night time accessories such as the Horizon Bracelet, Horizon Sport Bracelet and Sleep Bracelets, as well as fragrance.
“Philip Stein is a hugely respected brand and a powerful addition to our portfolio. We are partnering with them as the exclusive distributor for the GCC which is in line with our product expansion strategy. The watch is available across 12 stores of Al-Futtaim Watches and Jewellery and The Watch House in the UAE,” says Sachin Wadhwa, managing director of Al-Futtaim Watches & Jewellery.
Famous for creating luxe accessories and noted for incorporating wellness into its product line, Philip Stein embeds natural frequency technology (NFT) into its fine iconic pieces to help improve sleep, reduce stress and enhance overall wellbeing. The NFT technology works through a fine-tuned antenna which is inside each Philip Stein product in the form of a metal disc encouraging the human body’s optimal performance.
“We are excited to partner with Al-Futtaim Watches & Jewellery. This relationship will give us a platform to come closer to our customers, raise awareness of our brand and allow the audience to reap the true benefits of our products. There is an increasing awareness of fitness and healthy living among customers, and we are excited to be a part of this movement,” adds Philip Stein co-founder, Will Stein.
J Lindeberg was started by Johan Lindeberg in 1990s with the aimSeptember 2, 2022 | By RetailME Bureau
Majid Al Futtaim has made significant strides toward environmental, social, and corporateJuly 5, 2022 | By RetailME Bureau
British grocer Waitrose has opened its newest store in Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa
UAE-based Al Maya Supermarkets has kicked off its ‘Netherlands Food Week’ that
British grocery retail chain Tesco has announced a price lock on over
Dubai-based grocery retailer Union Coop has successfully obtained the ISO 22301, an
Spanish omnichannel supermarket chain Mercadona has announced salary increase amid inflation that
Grocery retail chain Choithrams will open eight convenience stores across Rove Hotels’
Part of regional retail conglomerate GMG, Géant plans to open more than
Online share in FMCG sales has been growing all over the world,
Majid Al Futtaim Retail, operator of the Carrefour franchise in the Middle
UAE-based diversified conglomerate GMG and Silal have signed a memorandum of understanding
Abu Dhabi based grocery retail chain Lulu Group has partnered with Amazon
UAE-government-led initiative Food Tech Valley – announced in 2021 by His Highness
Chalhoub Group’s retail concept dedicated to designer shoes and accessories Level Shoes
Technology major Epson has partnered with Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato and
Panda Retail Company yesterday held its first annual event for suppliers: “PACE”
Over the last two years global e-retailer of fashion, beauty and lifestyle
Global denim major Levi Strauss & Co. reported “strong” and “profitable” growth
Majid Al Futtaim, a leader in fashion, shopping mall, communities, and leisure
Through the launch of a new Messika Care(s) collection French jewellery house
As part of its expansion plan in the UAE, Indian jewellery brand
Fashion brand Old Navy, part of GAP Inc.’s portfolio, continues to build
Asked about some major milestones for fashion brand Giordano over the past
The National Retail Federation and Comexposium Group, one of the leading event organisers


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Sports fans were duped into spending thousands of pounds on forged autographs of their idols, a court heard yesterday.
The "systematic" scam was carried out by businessmen Graeme Walker and Faisal Madani, a jury was told.
Souvenirs apparently signed by heroes such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Christiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard went for "premium" prices.
But prosecutor Andrew Thomas QC said: "The defendants were selling effectively worthless items.
They were ripping fans off."
Walker, 45, boasted of his ability to forge autographs and practice signatures of Pele, Gerrard, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Sir Alex were allegedly found at his home, Chester crown court heard.
Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen, Ian Rush and rugby hero Jonny Wilkinson are expected to give evidence.
Souvenirs - including fake England caps - were sold from Walker's shop, Sporting Icons in Chester, or online.
Walker, of Connah's Quay, Deeside, denies more than 50 charges of cheating customers.
Madani, 43, of Stockport, Gtr Manchester, denies supplying forgeries. The trial continues.


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In the highest hike in its history, Surat District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd, commonly known as SUMUL dairy, Tuesday increased the purchase price of per kilo fat of cattle milk (both cow and buffalo) from dairy farmers of Surat and Tapi districts by Rs 30.
As a result, farmers will get Rs 780 per kilo fat of cow milk compared to Rs 750 previously and Rs 810 per kilo fat of buffalo milk as against Rs 780 earlier.
Sources said the decision was taken during the general meeting of the board of directors of Sumul Dairy Monday. The increase has been effective Tuesday.
“It (the current hike) is the highest in history. Ours is a cooperative society, so we share profits with the milk producers,” said Jayesh Patel, senior director of Sumul Dairy.
This is the first time SUMUL has raised the purchase price of cattle milk this year. Last year, the prices were hiked three times.
“The milk producers have been facing financial burden due to rise in the cattle feed prices, transportation and other expenses. So, we have decided to increase the purchase price of per kilo fat from milk producers,” said SUMUL Dairy chairman Mansinh Patel.
At the same time, the purchase price hike is likely to translate into a rise in milk prices for consumers in the coming days.
Sumul Dairy purchases around 14 lakh litres of milk daily from around 2.5 lakh registered milk producers of Surat and Tapi districts with the payment per day amounting to Rs 8 crore.
The dairy authorities have set up 1,200 mandlis in different talukas across Surat and Tapi districts to collect milk from the milk producers.
Source L Indian Express Feb 22nd 2023


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Like fashion, spirits’ trends change with the times. It was only yesterday that “Sex and the City” spawned a legion of Cosmopolitan consumers. But today, what’s hot in terms of tastes, trends and targeting consumers?
gyro interviewed three industry experts to get their candid thoughts about the category. Here is what Britt West of PLUS Consulting; Margaret McDonnell, senior director of marketing, spirits at The Wine Group; and Bill Anderson, president of Crystal Head Vodka, had to say:
1. Home mixologists have come of age. The art of the well-crafted cocktail has come home. Why? In addition to the already prevalent flavored vodkas, there is a widening of flavors and infusions, said West. This includes the jalapeño-infused Tanteo Tequila for Spicy Margaritas, the growth of Hendrick’s (with its dominant cucumber notes) and the new line of Chicken Cock Whiskey. “These innovative products are allowing consumers a new direction in home bartending,” she said.
2. Women’s palates are dictating tastes. The runaway success of SkinnyGirl has opened the eyes of many spirits brands to the buying power of women, said McDonnell. “Lately, whiskey suppliers have benefited by adding flavor and lowering the alcohol, which opened up an incremental revenue stream [from female consumers],” she said. Meanwhile, “brands like Sauza Tequila launched female-focused marketing campaigns for the first time. Given that margaritas and flavored martinis still represent so much on-premise volume, there is an opportunity for a brand to win with a cocktail strategy this summer.”
3. Consumers are calling different shots. Tastes are changing when it comes to shots. McDonnell predicts flavored whiskeys, like Fireball, and flavored bourbon will take a much larger share as they continue to expand in 2013. “Shots may be a small percentage of overall consumption; however, these new brands have a much sweeter taste profile and are more likely to be adopted by consumers as ingredients in mixed drinks.”
4. “Mad Men” cocktails are in style. Maybe it’s Don Draper’s fault, but classic cocktails are making a comeback. The biggest trend the year, per Anderson, is the continued growth of the classic and traditional cocktails such as martinis and Manhattans.
5. Spirits marketers are blending new media strategies. Media fragmentation has made many a marketer want to have a drink. A glossy print ad, billboard or high-end sponsorship isn’t going to move cases like years before. Creating engagement is very challenging, according to West, because of today’s bombardment of messages. Still, “new digital marketing opportunities not only enable marketers to target communication better but also to dramatically increase ROI and evolve brand messaging as analytics are available in real time,” said McDonnell.
6. Smart strategies for smartphones. More people in the world use a mobile phone than use a toothbrush, said McDonnell. The spirits industry is no exception to the rise of mobile technology to learn and purchase about products. According to marketing trend studies, “These new mediums are more likely to sell cases as over half of mobile searches lead to a purchase,” she said.
7. Spirits drinkers remain brand loyal. It’s important that spirits brands get all of these things right because if they do, they may have a customer for life, said Anderson. “Spirits consumers have strong preferences for brands and usually at the super-premium level. Wine consumers constantly switch and like to try or discover different brands. Spirits marketers have had the ability to develop brand loyalty and call.”
That’s why striking this loyalty with the younger, legal-drinking-age consumer is essential, said McDonnell. “They will have the largest amount of buying power of any age group by 2017 … because they think differently from their predecessors, there is a lot of white space for spirits brand innovation.”
Kenneth Hein is the global marketing director at gyro.
Follow him at @KennethHein


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According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Remake has been postponed. According to the report, Aspyr Media sacked the Game’s Design Director Brad Prince and Art director Jason Minor earlier this month.
NEWS: The Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake is indefinitely delayed, Bloomberg has learned. Developer Aspyr abruptly fired two directors this month and told staff that the project is on pause as it tries to figure out what comes next. https://t.co/3NUlKkenR6
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 26, 2022
The widely anticipated remake, developed by Aspyr Media, was formally revealed last year, but Bloomberg now claims that the project has been placed on hold and that the game’s design and art directors have been abruptly sacked. According to sources close to the project, the game’s development was halted after the team showed a demo known as the “vertical slice” to Sony and Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC.
“Developer Aspyr abruptly fired two directors this month and told staff that the project is on pause as it tries to figure out what comes next.”
-Jason Schreier, Bloomberg
The fate of the remake is now unknown, according to a report by Bloomberg, although some people think that Aspyr’s parent company, Embracer Group, will be giving the project to one of its other businesses, Saber Interactive.
During Sony’s PlayStation showcase in September of last year, the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake for the PlayStation 5 and PC was formally unveiled. A release date had not yet been specified.


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Coinbase has confirmed that it has received the necessary regulatory permits to launch in Singapore.
The exchange has been cleared by the central bank and will be able to offer payment services in the city-state, the company confirmed in a statement.
As a result, Coinbase can provide its services to customers, institutions, and businesses as long as all business conduct adheres to the Payment Services Act.
Coinbase described this approval as a significant milestone and a reflection on the company’s long-term ambition for the market.
Coinbase has been confident in achieving long-term success in Singapore, having hired 100 employees in the state. It has focused on hiring product engineers for the most part.
Coinbase regional director for Southeast Asia Hassan Ahmed welcomed the opportunity and said that Singapore remains one of the most important markets for the company.
Significantly, Singapore is touted as a tech hub for Web 3.0 development and innovation and that is precisely what Coinbase needs to spur further growth in the region and beyond.
Meanwhile, Singapore has been attractive to cryptocurrency and payment companies that engage in crypto, but not all have been able to clear the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s new regulations.
In fact, the regulator has been issuing permits to operate on the city-state’s territory sparingly.
Coinbase has been expanding rapidly, but not without some growing pains. The company is challenged in a $350m lawsuit by Veritaseum Capital LCC, which alleges patent infringement on part of Coinbase.
Previously, the company received approval to go ahead with a launch in the Netherlands.
Looking for your next crypto casino? Check out: Bitcasino, Gamb.co or FortuneJack.


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I’ve watched Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) for several years, and actually owned the shares for a while myself. The company reported earnings about a month ago, and the stock has risen about 15% from its short-term low. What’s ironic is, the company has three problems that investors seem to be ignoring.
There Are Two Types Of Companies
In the restaurant industry, there are two types of companies in my eyes. On the one hand, you have large companies that are established on multiple continents like McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) and Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM). These two companies have over 30,000 locations each, generate huge free cash flow, and are expected to get much of their growth in the future from overseas expansion. Investors buying McDonald’s get a yield of over 3.2%, and expected earnings growth of 8.7%. YUM Brands’ investors are expecting 12% earnings growth, and collect a 2% yield.
The other type of restaurant is typified by both Chipotle and Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA). Both of these companies have established brands and are rapidly expanding. While dividends are popular, with analysts calling for 20% EPS growth at Chipotle and 19% EPS growth at Panera, you can see the lack of a dividend isn’t a huge deal.
However, as with all growth stocks, if a company can’t meet or exceed analyst expectations, the shares can take a beating. This happened with Chipotle before when the company reported “disappointing” 8% growth in comparable store sales and investors expected more. The company actually did worse in the current quarter, but the shares went up. What’s going on here?
Expectations Are Everything
Investors who believe in Chipotle would say the company has just scratched the surface of the brand’s appeal, and the new ShopHouse concept has worldwide appeal as well. They expect Chipotle to have years of fast growth ahead, and this justifies the current price.
There are a few holes in this theory. First, Chipotle’s same-store sales growth seems to be in a free fall. Look at the company’s results over the last several quarters.
The problem is Chipotle pushed through a price increase last year that masked the strength of their customer traffic. Once that price increase fell off, their same-store sales growth was cut by more than half. Low single-digit same-store sales growth is expected from McDonald’s and YUM Brands. In a reversal of fortunes, Panera is now outperforming Chipotle. In the same quarter where Chipotle reported 3.8% growth, Panera reported same-store sales up 4.9%.
The second issue facing Chipotle is expectations when it comes to new store growth. For the full year 2012, Chipotle added 183 new restaurants and ended with 1,410 total locations. This level of store openings represented 14.91% new store growth. For 2013, at the most, the company expects to open 180 new stores. This means at best, the company will see 12.77% new store growth this year. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if the company has such a huge opportunity, why slow down new store openings?
The third issue Chipotle needs to address is their falling margins. In the current quarter, their competitor McDonald’s led most of the restaurant industry with an operating margin of 31.98%. YUM Brands performed well also, showing an 18.80% margin. Chipotle used to beat Panera on margins because of their more limited menu, and smaller staff. However, this lead has been extinguished as Panera’s operating margin of 14.5% nearly matched Chipotle’s margin of 14.6%. The fact that Chipotle’s operating margin has fallen from 16.7% at the beginning of 2012 to 14.6% shows a significant deterioration.


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|Groundbreaking held for new Acura dealership|
April 29, 2010
MERRILLVILLE -- Honda and Acura executives, town and business officials, even a friendly competitor, came out to welcome Merrillville's newest car dealer -- Muller Acura of Merrillville -- during an official groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.
Construction will begin on the $5 million building just west of Schepel Buick GMC Cadillac on U.S. 30 in May, with completion expected in spring 2011, said Glenn Muller, who will be managing the newest dealership.
Muller and his father, Mike Muller, also have Muller Honda in Highland Park, Ill., and Muller Acura in Hoffman Estates, Ill.
"I hope people will see this building and say, 'I want to buy my car there'," Glenn Muller said of the 2,650-square-foot building that will be the first Gen 3 Acura concept building in the Midwest and one of the first in the country, according to the building's architect Randal M. Jostes, of Lamp Inc. in Elgin, Ill.
"You will feel more like you're in a luxury hotel, not a car dealership," Muller said. "It will have customer lounges with hotel-like lobby seating, skylights, a cafe and theater seats where you can watch a video explaining where everything is in your car."
The Mullers were chosen to open Acura's newest Chicagoland dealership among a field of 30 dealerships that expressed interest, Matt Walsh, zone manager for Acura, said.
"We talked to a lot of dealers. You were chosen for the great property you chose, the fact that your building will be state-of-the-art, but the primary reason we chose you was for your character. You go above and beyond to help the customer," Walsh told the Mullers.
Also attending the groundbreaking were the vice president of Acura sales for the U.S., Jeff Conrad, and executive vice president of auto sales for Honda and Acura in the U.S., John Mendel, who flew in from California for the event.
Tom Van Prooyen, general manager of Schepel, said he is looking forward to having the Muller dealership next door.
"They'll have a beautiful dealership. It makes this whole block a desirable place to buy a car," he said.
Dave Lasser, owner of Commercial In-Sites real estate in Merrillville, said there will be 16 car dealerships within one mile, including Muller Acura Merrillville


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[TechWeb] reported on March 14th news, in 3· 15 approaching, WeChat announced the fight against personal circle of friends selling fruits. WeChat brand maintenance platform launched 8 months, a total ban suspected of selling fake account 11200, most concentrated in the account and selling bags, clothing and footwear and other goods.
WeChat hit a personal circle of friends fake achievements: 8 months Feng Ting account 11200
WeChat brand maintenance platform on the line last July, WeChat team used "WeChat users to report – brand – WeChat in false verification team" closed-loop mechanism in the fight against infringement and selling. So far, there are from 9 countries, more than 300 brands to join the WeChat platform, to send tens of thousands of alleged infringement of fake account notice.
has joined WeChat brand rights platform brands, luxury goods accounted for the majority, reached 44%, becoming the number one goal of WeChat brand rights platform against the "fake fake".
According to data released by WeChat
, bags, clothing, footwear, cosmetics, perfumes, these five types of merchandise and selling the largest amount of report. Among them, the number of bags and other clues to reach 31.2% of the total, ranking first, followed by clothing category, accounting for 25.4%. Footwear, perfume, cosmetics brand complaints were 18%, 6.8% and 4.7%. Banned WeChat personal account of the geographical distribution, Guangdong, Fujian is the hardest hit, Shandong, Hebei and other places are densely distributed District disposal account.
said WeChat, WeChat brand rights platform has entered a period of stable operation, four measures to make it become an important weapon of many brands and WeChat users tear pseudo "Mask" brand.
is the first "fake clues universal", the WeChat brand rights platform, brand can push through the platform, get millions of WeChat users provide clues;
followed by the identification of professional rights". At the invitation of the WeChat brand rights platform brand, intellectual property protection system to improve brand ability, professional fake Xuanjian Fang Yan, will try to avoid the error caused by the identification of brand identification ability is insufficient, ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the users of WeChat
is "the process of electronic processing and efficient processing". Whether it is submitted by WeChat users to report clues, is to identify and send the results of the brand side, or account penalties and account appeals process, WeChat brand rights platform truly achieve full electronic processing. Under normal circumstances, the platform will be completed within 24 hours after receiving the conclusions of the identification (within 48 hours of special circumstances), to ensure that the report clues to maximize the accurate, effective and fast processing;
finally, processing results of transparency is an important commitment WeChat team of users, the infringement complaint process to submit fake clues to users, brands are transparent, WeChat team.


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Readers may recall that in January this year I reported how Hermès, a luxury design house, had sent a cease and desist letter to artist Mason Rothschild claiming that the sale of his non-fungible tokens (NFTs) version of the famous Birkin bag ("MetaBirkins") infringed Hermès’ intellectual property rights (see full article here).
Hermès has now issued proceedings in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Rothschild claiming (among others) trade mark infringement, trade mark dilution, injury to business reputation and cybersquatting.
Rothschild sought to have the claim summarily dismissed arguing his MetaBirkins were artistic expressions protected under the Rogers v. Grimaldi test which allows the use of trade marks in artistic works provided the use does not explicitly mislead consumers or create a false designation of origin. Rothschild argued that the name “MetaBirkin” referred to the environment in which the art was made available (i.e. the metaverse) and was a commentary on the Birkin bag and fashion industry more generally.
While the judge found that the MetaBirkins indeed did qualify as artistic expressions, he found that there was “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face” and therefore Rothschild’s motion to dismiss was denied on 5 May 2022. Rothschild appealed the decision.
Some of these 'accepted factual matters' included:
- Evidence of the reputation of the BIRKIN mark;
- Rothschild's own statement during an interview with Yahoo Finance that “there's not much difference" between owning a MetaBirkin and "having the crazy car or the crazy handbag in real life because it's kind of just that, that showing of like wealth or that kind of explanation of success”.
- Instances of actual confusion, including consumer posts on Instagram page claiming they believed there was an affiliation with Hermes and magazines Elle and the New York Post mistakenly reporting that the “MetaBirkins” NFTs were unveiled by Hermès “in partnership with Rothschild”.
On 30 September, Rothchild’s appeal of the decision denying his motion to dismiss was also rejected. In his decision, the judge accepted that “like the physical Birkin handbag itself, MetaBirkins are extremely valuable commodities” noting that “the NFTs have sold for over a million dollars collectively” and appeared to echo Hermès' allegations that “consumers and media outlets have expressed actual confusion as to whether Hermès is affiliated with Rothschild’s line of NFTs, with many believing it to be the product of a partnership between the two.”
This case is the first of its kind and brand owners will be watching carefully as the outcome could have important repercussions on the wider NFT industry. Whilst a decision on the merits of the case is still far down the line (assuming the case does not settle), for now the odds seem stacked in Hermès’ favour. Watch this space.
"..like the physical Birkin handbag itself, MetaBirkins are extremely valuable commodities..."


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Finch Stands Up For New York’s Family Farms
Assemblyman Gary D. Finch (R,C,I – Springport) today joined colleagues from his Assembly Minority Conference in celebration of Dairy Day in the well of the Legislative Office Building. The day was not all positive, however. Finch and his colleagues also stood up in opposition to recently passed legislation that has the potential to shut down small family farms across New York.
“Dairy Day is usually a celebration of all of the wonderful products that dairy farmers provide for us,” said Finch. “While I was pleased to meet with many distributors of dairy products and enjoy the festivities, I felt there was an air of concern caused by yesterday’s passage of such destructive farm legislation.”
The “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act,” which passed yesterday in the Assembly, will further impose burdensome mandates on small farms and will considerably increase the cost of doing business. The New York Farm Bureau is strongly opposed to this legislation, and estimates that it would cost New York’s family farms over $200 million per year. In a time when farmers are already facing economic hardships, this will inevitably force many farms out of business, noted Finch.
“I join my colleagues in strong opposition to legislation that will hurt farmers and force many farms – especially small ones – to close,” Finch stated. “Increasing the cost of doing business in New York state and, therefore, increasing the cost of food for our working families is exactly what we should not do during this economic crisis.”


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Timothée Chalamet went from “fuck boy” Willy Wonka to a “little lad” in the blink of an eye. In just a matter of days, the actor has showed off many eye-catching looks, all of which could be mistaken as some highbrow cosplay—or early entries into the 2021 celeb Halloween canon.
On Sunday, Chalamet attended a photo call for his upcoming film, Dune. The 25-year-old actor stepped out in a custom Stella McCartney toile-esque look with a pattern—taken from a dress in McCartney’s summer 2021 collection—that depicts a forest of mushrooms in the perfect “berries and cream” color palette. The fabric itself is partially made from McCartney’s “forest friends viscose,” a form of rayon the brand extracts from “sustainably managed and certified forests in Sweden” so as to not contribute to mass deforestation.
Chalamet joins Lorde in the adoption of the mushroom trend, which seems to slowly be taking over Hollywood red carpets. While both Chalamet’s suit and the Rodarte dress Lorde wore earlier this month only depict motifs of fungi, mushrooms are becoming a more ubiquitous sustainable option for leather in the form of mycelium, with brands like Stella McCartney and Hermès already using the leather alternative in some products.
When night fell on Sunday, Chalamet switched out of his sustainable McCartney suit into something much more glam, though no less dramatic. For a screening of Dune following the photo call, the actor put on a Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello double-breasted black suit with harem pants. Gold thread stitched throughout the fabric gave the look a bit of shine, while black leather lace-up boots edged it up a bit. The result was a very ’80s-inspired outfit that MC Hammer would no doubt drool over. Chalamet apparently felt very comfortable in the suit, as he let loose at the screening with his equally well-dressed costars, Zendaya and Jason Momoa.
It won’t be long now until Chalamet once again ditches his mushrooms and gold for the Dickensian costume he was spotted wearing while filming the Willy Wonka prequel in England last week. There’s a chocolate factory to build, after all.


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Press Release: Treasured Belongings Of Famed American Writer Gore Vidal Set For September Auction
Featuring notable artwork, furnishings and memorabilia, this sale offers the public a rare opportunity to own a piece of literary history
Treasured Belongings of Famed American Writer Gore Vidal Set for September 2016 Auction
(Los Angeles, Calif. – Aug. 29, 2016) Hundreds of items from the estate of the late American author Gore Vidal, including selections from his personal library, choice correspondence and literary awards, will be auctioned on Sept. 18 by Abell Auction Company in Los Angeles.
A true man of letters, Vidal’s works of historical fiction, essays and political commentaries represent some of this century’s most famous works. The extensive sale will feature items from the former homes of Vidal and his partner Howard Austen: a villa called “La Rondinaia” in the resort town of Ravello, Italy and Mediterranean style home in the Outpost Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills. Both properties were featured in design magazines such as Architectural Digest and also frequented by royalty, Broadway and Hollywood writers and actors, important literary figures and politicians.
The sale starts at 10 a.m. PST and will include items notable to art and antique collectors such as an Italian Baroque giltwood and marble console; a porphyry marble table top; a Flemish Verdure tapestry; a pair of Italian Baroque painted and parcel gilt torchieres; an Italian walnut commode and secretaire; a Victorian walnut partner’s desk; a set of four Italian painted overdoors; a collection of Old Master paintings and drawings; a Roman marble funerary urn and Asian artifacts.
For those interested in unique personal effects and memorabilia, standout items include Vidal’s personal library of first edition works under his name and pseudonyms; awards and recognitions, including his elite “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” medallion for contributions to the arts in France; a typed note from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams; a letterman’s jacket from the animated comedy “The Simpsons”; and much more.
Vidal died in 2012 at age 86 and is remembered as one of America’s most prolific and versatile writers. Among his most famous works are “Lincoln,” “Myra Breckinridge” and “The City and the Pillar.” A member of an illustrious political family, he was the grandson of a U.S. Senator and twice ran unsuccessfully for public office. His mother’s second husband was the stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy.
An auction preview will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Sept. 14 to 17 at the Abell gallery, 2613 Yates Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, call 323.724.8102 or visit www.abell.com, where a complete catalogue will be posted on Sept. 2.
Live and online auction: Sept. 18 at 10 a.m.
Onsite preview: Sept. 14 to 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: Abell Auction Co., 2613 Yates Ave., Los Angeles (free valet parking)
For more information: www.abell.com or 323.724.8102
Connect on Facebook and Twitter
About Abell Auction Company
Abell Auction Company was Los Angeles’ first permanent auction house showcasing fine estate property and consignments – a tradition that continues today. Now celebrating 100 years of family operation, it has been entrusted with the treasured belongings of many celebrities and legendary figures in Hollywood. The premier auction gallery hosts weekly general auctions and quarterly fine art and antique sales attracting an international audience of in-person and online buyers. For more information, visit www.abell.com or call 323.724.8102.


text: California’s wildfire season off to quiet start…that about to change, like, now?; Sentencing in college admissions scandal begins this week (talk of Felicity Huffman getting month in jail); It: Chapter Two nabs second-highest horror movie opening w/$91 million haul; British Airways cancels nearly all its flights through tomorrow (pilot strike); Streaming services – the new trend in credit card rewards?; Most valuable whisky collection going up for auction (bidding starts on 27th); World’s largest Starbucks opening in Chicago (November); America running out of White Claw hard seltzer?; A list of pumpkin spice items you can buy right now that have no business being on market; The return of Jeopardy! (tonight) w/legendary host Alex Trebek at its helm for season 36.


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A TikTokker has gone viral for posting a video of herself sharing a tip on how to make the most of luggage space on a Ryanair flight. Kristen Black, who goes by the username @kristenashleyblack on TikTok, shared the tip to help others fit more clothes in their Ryanair carry-on bag.
Passengers flying with Ryanair are only allowed one carry-on bag with them on a flight.
To take more clothes with them on holiday, they must pay extra to put a bag in the hold.
This can sometimes cost passengers more than the flight itself, and so it’s worth trying to pack light to try and fit everything in one bag.
Kristen has shared how passengers can make more room in their bag.
READ MORE: Simon Calder shares essential tip amid passport chaos
The captions accompanying Kristen’s video read: “How to pack for your Ryanair flight when you have zero luggage allowance.”
She then went on to share another hack, with the text in her video reading: “Use your hat for the souvenirs you bought during ya trip.”(sic)
Kristen put a souvenir gift on her head and placed her hat on top of it.
Lastly, she put items in the pockets of her coat, with the video’s text reading: “Stuff those pockets.”
Jackson commented: “Pretty similar to what I did on my easyJet flight. Was wearing three pairs of trousers, four t-shirts, hoodie, jacket with pockets for days.”
Sinead added: “You cracked the code girl.”
User xg00sebomps wrote: “So helpful and one of my favs right now thanks guuuurl.”(sic)
Travelgirl_lasvegas said: “This is….genius.”
However, user ii.szymon said: “Just get priority with a suitcase, it’s not even expensive.”
User bay said: “I’d rather pay the extra fees than look like you.”
Cracktoosie added: “But if I did this I’d get tackled to the floor.”


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Facebook’s earnings are in, and it’s a massive beat.
The company released its fourth-quarter numbers on Wednesday, reporting earnings per share of 31 cents on revenue of $2.59 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of 27 cents on revenue of $2.33 billion.
“It was a great end to the year for Facebook,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a canned statement. “We’re looking forward to our next decade and to helping connect the rest of the world.”
The biggest point here: Facebook’s mobile advertising revenue is continuing to climb, now accounting for 53 percent of the company’s overall advertising business. That’s more than double what it was in the same quarter last year, and up from the 49 percent it represented in the company’s previous quarter.
Unsurprisingly, as mobile ad revenue climbs, the company’s user base has also shifted en masse to accessing the site from mobile devices. Mobile daily active users were up to more than half a billion people, while mobile monthly active users are nearing one billion. That’s a near-complete turnaround of where Facebook was just one year ago, with much of its core user base on the desktop website.
Shares of Facebook jumped about six percent after hours, trading at around $57.
We’ll be listening on the conference call soon for any other insights, especially when it comes to Facebook’s teen problem.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.


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Europe's largest car maker Volkswagen is planning to more than double its India headcount with addition of 1,500 employees at its Chakan plant alone in Maharashtra.
The group, which started production at Chakan near Pune in March 2008, is looking at full-capacity production at this plant by 2012 and would need to strengthen its staff strength for the same, its India head said.
Volkswagen has two facilities in India at Aurangabad and Chakan, which assembles cars of its three brands -- Skoda, Audi and Volkswagen.
"We opened our Chakan facility this year and it is producing Skoda Fabia now, but in small numbers. When we will launch the small car Polo next year, the numbers will increase," Volkswagen Group India president and managing director Joerg Mueller told PTI.
The company is now undertaking pre-production testing of Polo at the Rs 3,800-crore Chakan plant, which has an annual capacity of 110,000 units.
"Currently we have about 1,000 people employed with the group. We will require about 2,500 employees once the plant will start production at full capacity in the next 2-3 years," Mueller said.
The company would increase its headcount to 1,200 by the end of this year, he added.
Mueller also said the group is eyeing 8-10 per cent stake in the Indian passenger car market in the next 5-6 years from a minuscule share now and would consider to integrate after-sales service of its three brands in India for better synergy.
"We are aiming for 8-10 per cent of the market share within next 5-6 years," he added.
The group sold about 19,000 units last year in the over 1.5 million-unit Indian passenger vehicle market of Skoda, Audi and Volkswagen brands.
"We are also looking for synergies within our brand in logistics and after-sales services. It is possible to integrate the back-office and it is important for the brand also," he said.
The company has announced that it would launch its small car Polo early next year in both petrol and diesel variant.
"Polo will enjoy the excise benefit given in the country to small cars... otherwise it cannot be a competitive model here," Mueller said.
Currently small cars with less than 4 metres in length and displacements up to 1200cc for petrol and 1500cc for diesel engines attract 8 per cent excise duty in India.
On its concept car UP!, Mueller said the company is currently developing the model for the European market where it would be launched by 2011.
"It (Up!) is a car for big metros and it can be a very interesting car in India as well. But we have not finalised to launch it here," he added.


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PHILADELPHIA–-Gopuff is acquiring 8-month-old startup Dija, a European delivery platform that also provides last-mile services to consumers. Following Gopuff’s recent acquisition of UK-based Fancy, this deal is expected to accelerate the company’s international expansion by establishing an immediate presence in France and Spain and extending its reach in the United Kingdom.
Dija was founded in 2020 and operates dozens of micro-fulfillment centers across major metropolitan areas including London, Paris, Madrid and Valencia.
“Combining Dija’s team of industry veterans, extensive infrastructure and local expertise will complement Gopuff’s proprietary technology and unique customer experience and advance our ability to scale rapidly as we create a leading platform in Europe,” said Daniel Folkman, Gopuff senior vice president of business.
“For the last eight years, Gopuff has been the market and category leader in the United States. Together, combined with our team's extensive experience of building and scaling food and delivery companies across Europe, we are perfectly positioned to lead the everyday essentials space in Europe and beyond,” said Alberto Menolascina, co-founder and CEO of Dija.
Through the acquisitions of Dija and Fancy, Gopuff plans to operate in three European countries with about 40 micro-fulfillment centers and 200 employees in the region, with additional plans for continued, rapid expansion.
Dija, which has a vertically integrated model like Gopuff, will continue to operate under the Dija name in the near-term as the two companies create an integration plan to enhance the customer experience.